AN author and charity worker was signing copies of his debut novel at Waterstones in Salisbury on Friday.

Joe Glackin’s book A Lone Star Weeps: An Inspector Gloria Mystery is a thriller set in Liberia and centres around Gloria Sirleaf, a detective inspector trying to establish herself as a young woman leading one of the country’s renewal efforts following the end of a brutal civil war.

Glackin drew on his personal experience having spent 12 years in Liberia at the height of its infamous civil war working directly with child soldiers, street children and other victims of the conflict.

In contrast he also experienced first-hand the generosity, humour and zest for life that Liberia and Liberians are rightly famous. Additionally, Glackin has worked in community and youth development in Sudan, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Rwanda and Eritrea for the Salisbury-based international development charity Hope and Homes for Children.